1. Field of the Invention
This invention is directed to devices for demonstrating the effects of polarizing lenses, and, more particularly, to such devices for use in marketing sunglasses having polarized lenses.
2. Related Art
Glare caused by the reflection of light off surfaces such as roads, windows, snow, or water can be significantly reduced by polarized lenses, allowing safer operation of motor vehicles as well as minimization of eye fatigue over long periods of exposure. Such lenses are present in products marketed as polarized sunglasses.
Polarized sunglasses reduce glare by allowing transmission of the vertical component of the reflected light, and by blocking the mainly horizontal component of the light reflected from surfaces.
The reduction in glare by polarized lenses can be significant, but the demonstration of their benefits to members of the public can be difficult. This difficulty can be enhanced by the absence of trained personnel and by the lack of glare in most retail environments. The combination of these factors makes the marketing of polarized sunglasses problematic and creates the need for an adequate demonstration device that can be used in sales and marketing locations such as shops, exhibition stands, mall kiosks, etc., for allowing customers to readily experience the ability of polarized lenses to reduce or eliminate glare.
Previous attempts to demonstrate the benefits of polarized lenses in reducing glare have been made. Devices such as glare-producing view boxes, wherein the customer is asked to look at a graphic through a clear pane of transparent material, have been developed. The demonstration is based on the generation of glare on the clear pane. This is achieved with a variable degree of success as a function of the glare demonstrator design. The glare is reduced or eliminated when the viewer wears polarized sunglasses, allowing him or her to observe the graphic located behind the glare pane. A limitation of such systems is that the size of the graphic dictates the depth and overall size of the device and in a retail environment, where space is at a premium, large versions of such glare boxes would be cost prohibitive. These demonstrators also require shielding of the glare pane from unpolarized ambient light in order to exhibit their full potential.
Another type of glare demonstrator uses a polarizing film similar to films used on computer screens and other display devices. This system relies on the angle between the unpolarized light source, the surface of the film, and the eye of the observer. For this reason, in a general retail environment and to be most effective, a large-scale version of this demonstrator would require a significant amount of space in an environment where space is at a premium.
Demonstrators of the type described above can be useful to demonstrate the benefits of polarized lenses once the customer has entered the retail space and asked for information, but are not of sufficient size to be effective in attracting the customer in the retail space in the first place.
A need, therefore, exists for a glare demonstrator that can be of sufficient size to attract the customer, yet sufficiently compact for a retail setting, whose efficacy to demonstrate glare is not affected by unpolarized ambient light and that is sufficiently easy to use so that the customer can see the effect of polarizing lenses without the need for trained personnel.